CJ Dalton President Taryn Byron joined Yahoo Finance Live to break down the pandemic's impact on Millennial homebuyers.

Video Transcript

EMILY MCCORMICK: Home buying is still hot so far in 2021. And our next guest says record savings rates are helping many millennials afford new homes. Here with us now is Taryn Byron, president of the real estate firm CJ Dalton. Taryn, thanks so much for joining us. And as I just mentioned, you pointed out that high savings rates are a big factor in allowing buyers to get into this housing market. Is this release of pent-up savings peaking right now, or do you see this continuing to benefit housing later on this year?

TARYN BYRON: We're going to continue to see housing benefit from this pent-up savings because there's really no inventory on the market. We're about 30% to 50% down over the 10-year average of our inventory in the real estate market across the country.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Tell us the story about millennials, though. For years, millennials got beat up. And now it seems millennials are controlling the housing market.

TARYN BYRON: Well, a lot of millennials through the pandemic actually moved home with their parents and saved a lot more money. They weren't going out spending discretionary income because there was really nowhere to go. So all of that additional savings helped millennials. And now they have a big COVID piggy bank, I'd like to say. We're also seeing one of the biggest changes in generational wealth from the baby boomers over to their millennial children. So that's also assisting in this kind of pent-up buying frenzy that we're seeing.

EMILY MCCORMICK: And of course, Taryn, buying as a whole has really been a frenzy, as you point out. But what do you make of some of this weaker housing market data that we've gotten recently? Because, just last week, we saw that housing starts were down 9 and 1/2% in April over March. And new home sales were down 7%. How should investors really be making sense of this data?

TARYN BYRON: Well, there is always changes in the market. And there is always smaller things that do affect the market. We're seeing lower housing starts because construction wasn't happening. So we need to let that develop a little bit. But there is a shortage in inventory that is not going to be caught up for a while. And then the cost of lumber and everything factored into that, that also is going to affect pricing. And the low interest rates that buyers are benefiting from right now definitely is adding fuel to the fire.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Yeah, but a year out, lumber-- we already know lumber futures are down dramatically. So wouldn't it be in the best interest of people who fear out-- fear that they might miss out to just hold your horses, interest rates aren't going to go up that dramatically, and wait maybe six months?

TARYN BYRON: Well, if you find the right home, buy it. Don't wait. That's always my thoughts. But people, as prices do increase, it's just going to continue. And we're going to see a bigger bubble. If you take a step back, think about the conversations that we were having this time last year, worrying about a housing crisis similar to what we saw in 2008. Oh my goodness, the market's going to crash. But that didn't happen.

EMILY MCCORMICK: And Taryn, you talked a little bit about the tight inventory, of course, also weighing on affordability. When do you see supplies starting to actually meet demand?

TARYN BYRON: That's something that's going to take us a bit of time to catch up to because there are going to need to be new homes built. And typically, if a developer secures a property now, it's going to be about two years for delivery on something like that.